The Battle of St Fagans

Royalists forces gathered at St. Nicholas prior to their defeat at the Battle of St Fagans in 1648 - one of the last battles of the civil war.

The Battle of St Fagan’s was the largest battle ever to take place in Wales. In May 1648, around 11,000 men fought a desperate battle in the village of St Fagan’s, ending in a decisive victory for the Parliamentarian forces and the rout of the Royalist army.

Miles Button of Worlton (Duffryn) was captured and fined £5000 for his support of the King - his annual income was £400. His brother was tried and executed for treason after the battle.

When the disaffected Parliamentary troops under Poyer and Powell declared for the King in April 1648 and marched east into Glamorgan the landed families in the Vale were quick to seize their chance. Though they had outfaced Charles himself with their "Peaceable Army" in 1645, in the ensuing years they had twice attempted to seize Cardiff Castle in his name. Each time they had been defeated by the soldiers of Major-General Laugharne. Now Laugharne himself was on parole in London, on suspicion of being involved in royalist plots, and it was his men, dissatisfied with their conditions of discharge, who were marching against the Parliament they had supported. John Stradling of St Donat's returned from exile to lead the Royalists who joined with them, and almost every landed family in Glamorgan was represented among those who rallied to them. According to a contemporary the Glamorgan Gentry "lead the common people which way they please" and the countrymen of the Vale flocked to their army in overwhelming numbers. It was a significant moment for the king, a prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle but intriguing with the Scots. The success of the Welsh rising might have swung the balance of history in his favour – in Cromwell's own words to his fellow Members of Parliament "How near you were brought to ruin thereby, all men that know anything can tell."

At Brecon Colonel Thomas Horton was in command of a brigade which included Okey's New Model dragoons, who had not yet shown their prowess in open battle in Wales. Since early March he had been skirmishing in West Wales and along the Breckonshire border. His men had difficulty finding fodder for the horses and men. The countryfolk had learnednow best to hinder a body of cavalry e.g. by deserting and leaving unusable a village smithy. Horton himself was ill, and had withdrawn to Brecon. Despite some small successes Horton wrote to Fairfax: "I am much afflicted I can give your Excellency no better account of South Wales; but in one word I must say again, that it is generally against Parliament." In response to his pleas, Cromwell was ordered to march for Wales and it was the rumour of his coming which precipitated the battle.

However hearing that Poyer and Powell had invaded Glamorgan, Horton marched south, crossed the Taff at Llandaff Bridge and threw themselves between the advancing Welsh and their objective of Cardiff Castle at the last place were it was tactically possible – the little village of St Fagans.

They reached St Fagans by Thursday 4 May and Horton wasted no time in deploying his weary troops. One garrison was established in Llandaff to forestall any attempt on the part of the enemy to cross the Taff at that point. He sent another to Ely to bar the crossing of the river Ely at Rhyd Sarn, but he kept the main body of men in St Fagans, commanding the river Ely where it cut through the woods from St Fagans to Fairwater.

Almost immediately Horton sent five small groups of cavalry to scout the country ahead. Only two miles away they came upon a body of eight thousand men marching on St Fagans with the intention of bivouacking there that night. These troops camped at St Nicholas.

The English and Welsh outposts near Cottrell were within a quarter of a mile of each other so that Horton's troops could hear guns fired in welcome when major-General Laugharne arrived to take command. He brought promises from the Prince of Wales advisors in Paris that he should have all the supplies he needed. Laugharne put his strength at 8000 but his weakness was in cavalry. Between 3000 and 4000 of his men were Clubmen" the countrymen of South Wales. They were armed mostly with pikes and, according to tradition, many had never seen cannon fire before.

There was incessant skirmishing from the Welsh who had the advantage of an intimate knowledge of the country. This sort of guerilla attach was weakening the resistance of Horton's troops, and it might have been to Laugharne's advantage to continue until they were thoroughly demolished; but on Friday 5 May news spread throught the Welsh camp that Cromwell was marching west with his own and Colonel Thornlaugh's horse and the foot soldiers of Colonel Pride and Colonel Dean.

Either on the Friday or the morning of 6 May Laugharne's forces fell back for to five miles on Penmark, Llancarfan and Fonmon. Horton kept his cavalry on the alert, the horses gathered in the Nine Acre Field near St Mary's Church, St Fagan's, a field known since as Cae'r Meirch, the field of the warhorses." Some of Horton's men were quartered in and around the little village in the shadow of the walls in the little valley that is within the castle grounds today. Others lay in the fields between St Fagan's village and Pentrebane Farm, where Horton had set up his headquarters.

By Sunday night the Welsh army was on the move again, and at seven o'clock on the Monday morning, 8 May, Horton's scouts discovered the main body only 1.5 miles from his headquarters at Pentrebane. The indications are that they advanced past Cottrell and crossed the Ely River at Pont Llanbedre emerging into open country west of St Fagan's where the main body was drawn up along the wooded ridge which spanned the track to St Bride's.

There was more unity among the 3000 roundheads who rode out to meet them, the cavalry wearing the leather buff jackets and standard uniform of the New Model Army.

There are two reasons why it is difficult today to reconstruct the topography of the battlefield and the exact course of the engagement. Firstly the face of the country has been changed by the coming and passing of the railways. Secondly all the information about the course of the battle comes from the Parliament side who did not have the local knowledge that some of the opposing Royalists did.

It was a raw unpleasant morning as the Parliament troops marched out of St Fagans to marshal in battle array in the slight depression through which a track ran north to Crofft-y-Genau and Rhydlafar. Almost immediately their quarters were occupied by 500 Welsh cavalry under Colonel Butler. They had probably crossed the Ely with the main body, then detached themselves to ride along the old road from St Bride,s and come suddenly into the village from the south west, avoiding the crossing by the narrow St Fagans bridge, commanded by the roundheads in the village. Horton was now menaced on two sides but he was determined not to fall back on Fairwater and Cardiff and he risked meeting the main force with Butler's cavalry closing in behind him.

The first Welsh move had been successful, and in the ensuing battle this force of cavalry may have delayed Barton's horse on the left wing, for it is on the right that we hear of greatest advances. But they are not mentioned again. Perhaps seeing the result of the battle they melted quietly away. This left wing of the English force commanded by Major Barton, comprised a troop of cavalry and a troop of Okey's dragoons. They took up their positions by Ty Newydd Farm and Penhefyd, and from the edge of the trees around Pwll Arthur they would have had a clear view across the meadows of Tregoches to the slope beyond Nant Dowlais where the Welsh troops were massed.

Horton commanded his men from the centre of the line, where he had cannon and muskets. He had ordered the whole body to keep within the shelter of the depression of the Crofft-y-Genau lane as long as possible, but when he did emerge through the trees on the slope above he had deployed in front of his main army a forlorn hope of infantry (a picked body of men detached in front to begin the attack) and, in front of them again, a forlorn of mounted men under Lt Godfrey.

The right wing under Colonel Okey rode up the Crofft-y-Genau lane and wheeled left to mount a ridge and emerge above Lower Stockland Farm. Under his command were three troops of his own dragoons and three of horse led by Major Bethel.

It must have been about 8 a.m. when the two armies confronted one another from opposing hillsides. The country between was a patchwork of hedged fields. It was wet and muddy underfoot. Where the St Bride's track crossed the Nant Dowlais was a little grey walled bridge and the farms of Lower Stocklands and Tregoches lay between the two armies. Eager for battle Laugharne moved first. He ordered a forlorn of 500 infantry accompanied by half a dozen mounted skirmishes, the Pickering horse" to leave their comapritaviely strong position on the ridge and advance across the stream towards the enemy. As they crossed the fields towards him, Horton ordered Lt Godfrey to charge with his mounted forlorn of thirty horse and twenty dragoons. Though outnumbered ten to one, Godfrey's men immediately got the advantage, driving back the Welsh line and allowing their own men behind them to gain ground.

Time and again in this battle a Roundhead cavalry charge was to outstrip infantry support and, having gained an advantage, the horse was forced to stand heavy fire from the main body of the enemy before their own foot soldiers came up in support. Out on the right wing above Stockland, Colonel Okey moved forward to attack the enemy's left, in support of Godfrey's forlorn. A troop of his dragoons under Captain Nicholets, some of Bethel's horse and Garland's musketeers streamed forward and gained an immediate advantage around Stockland, beating the Welsh infantry back through two closes' and across the stream. But now they were under fire from the Welsh on the tumulus. Here they maintained their ground until some of Barton's cavalry from the left wing crossed the battle front to their support. Then up came Horton's infantry forlorn and together they systematically beat the enemy from hedge to hedge before them, though with so many reserves of foot behind every hedge, he could make a stand with each new party. In vain Laugharne brought up fresh reserves of infantry. The combined Roundhead attack forced the Welsh steadily back along the foot of the ridge towards the bridge were today a single stone parapet marks the original course of the Nant Dowlais at the St Bride's road.

Here the enemy's greatest force was placed and Horton's tactics now were to surround them. In front of the bridge Godfrey's forlorn had had to bear the brunt of the Welsh fire until Okey began his attack from the right and Leitenant- Colonel Read brought up the first division of foot to support Godfrey in the centre. Horton saw he must follow up the advantage gained by Okey, and he sent Major Wade with the second division of infantry across the stream on the Welsh left, swinging towards the centre as the Welsh gave before them. So far most of the fighting had been in the centre and on the right where both infantry and cavalry could join battle. South of Tregoches, Major Barton with the left wing crossed the boggy patch, and the stream and wheeled towards the centre, where the fight was thickest. Almost too late, Laugharne brought forward some of his reserve cavalry. The cavalry charge failed to drive back the English foot; instead Roundhead cavalry and infantry together broke through the pike men and the cavalry and charged the musketeers who up to now, from their vantage point on the ridge had been causing the worst Roundhead casualties and frustrating the cavalry charges by picking off horses. By now Okey's men were sweeping across the hill were near the tumulus stand today the ruins of a windmill built during the Napoleonic Wars. It became clear that shortly Okey would join with Barton's wing to complete the pincer movement. Now after an hour of sustaining repeated cavalry charges and desperate hand-to- hand fighting, the Welsh infantry saw themselves almost surrounded, broke and ran.

The battle degenerated into a running retreat, both pursued and pursuers in small groups. Okey states his men "pursued the enemy to water," possibly St-y-Nyll Ponds, and "from thence over a river where he again made good stand." This could be Pont Sarn, where the most direct route from the battlefield west crosses the Ely. This was certainly the direction in which the royalist Edmund Traherne fled to his home at Castellau, where he had to hide in the anchorite's cave in the grounds while the house was occupied bt Parliamentary troops. Alternatively the Royalist stand could have been across Pont Llanbedr where the rout turned south over the Ely. Cannon balls were discovered both at the ridge where the Welsh took up there position prior to battle, but also south of the river on the fields of Homri, which suggests that the main body of the Roundheads pursued their enemy in this direction. Where they overtook parties of Royalists around St Nicholas there wre short, desperate fights and the groups of bodies buried together near Duffryn and Whittin Mawr mark the direction the Welsh fugitives were taking towards Fonmon.

When Horton wrote a brief report in the field at St Fagans that evening he was able to report no officer casualties and only a few troops though the cavalry had lost many horses. In this first report Horton estimated that 3000 prisoners had been taken.

St Fagans sank back into obscurity though legend was to multiply the horrors of the battle. Each new generation repeated how the Nant Dowlais or the Ely ran red with blood and the widows of St Fagans sowed and reaped in a village left without men. Tregoches is marked in Ordinance Survey map of 1878 as Tre Goch Gwaed, "the red blood dwelling." Fragments of pikes and flintlocks are still being found.

Outside the immediate locality the tendency has been to depreciate the victory. It is rarely mentioned in English histories, but J F Rees considers it "the most significant engagement fought in Wales during the Civil War."

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